Entrepreneurs and marketers with no design background will find the term UX Design intimidating. Unfortunately, this is something that can’t be put aside and ignored. UX design is vital in trust-building, product development, and establishing customer relationships, among many others.

Even if you’re not the one to create the UX design, understanding it gives you the power to control how it would work for your brand. This article will help you learn about UX design and how it can do wonders for your business. We’ll also discuss how Penji, an unlimited graphic design service, can take care of it for you. Watch our demo video here.

What is UX Design?

The term UX stands for User Experience. UX Design is such a fascinating field yet highly complex, especially for beginners. Simply put, UX design is the process of designing products that provide relevant and good experiences for users. Its main goal is to create a system that offers excellent experiences for your customers.

UX Design is a multidisciplinary field that includes the following practices:

  • Information architecture
  • Human-Computer interaction
  • Visual design
  • Usability

Below are some points to give you a clearer picture of what UX design is all about:

  • Facilitating a good experience when a user interacts with your brand
  • Approaching design that has the end-users in mind
  • Solving problems with empathy
  • Improving the use of a product to make it pleasant, appealing, even addictive
  • Fulfilling your brand’s promise
  • Combining art with science in generating positive experiences with interactions
  • Determining how your website or app will behave
  • Committing to developing a product or service with integrity, purpose, and compassion
  • Anticipating customers’ needs by giving them what they need without having to ask

This may seem a handful, but all in all, UX design isn’t as overwhelming as some may think. It is about providing value while delighting customers and prospects.

UX Design Statistics Non-Designers Should Know

To better understand how vital the role of UX Design is, here are some of the latest statistics we gathered. 

  • On average, UX design has an ROI of 9,900%, according to Forrester. This means that for every $1 you invest in UX design, you’ll get $100 in return.
  • Another Forrester research has found that great UX design can raise your website’s conversion rates anywhere from 200% to 400%.
  • After an awful user experience, 88% of users are less likely to return to a website, says a study by Toptal.
  • A PWC survey shows that 32% of loyal customers would leave a brand after just one bad experience.
  • A whopping 91% of non-complainers just leave a website where they had a bad experience, but 13% of them will tell 15 or more of their friends about it, says Capgemini.

And these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, UX design is crucial for business growth. It’s something any business owner can’t afford to escape. But not to worry, as help is available in the form of Penji. 

The Good and the Bad: UX Design Examples

Nothing is better than seeing for yourself what UX design is. Here are examples of good and bad UX design to give you a visual representation of what it really is:

The Good: Google

You don’t need all the bells and whistles when creating excellent UX design. It’s true that less is more as what Google has proven. The name has now become synonymous with internet search that it already has become a verb. Their UX design has remained as simple as it was more than two decades ago and as effective as ever.

The Bad: Apple iTunes Store

Going to Apple’s iTunes Store is usually hassle-free. The most common error message that users see is the one below. This is the perfect example of what a bad UX design is. It offers no solution to the problem and leaves you hanging. 

The Difference Between UX and UI Design

Not to add to the confusion is the term we often hear about—UI Design. We often see UX and UI designs together and are almost always inadvertently interchanged. It’s understandable, but these two couldn’t be more different. Here’s how:

UI (User Interface) has its focus on the surface appearance and performance of a product. So, while UX is all about the good experience on the interaction, UI is about the specific assets that they interact with. These two go hand-in-hand as UX is the way you do it, and UI is the tool you do it with.

What Does a UX Designer Do?

A UX Designer is responsible for a wide array of projects, and as technology advances, so does their scope of work. Primarily, here are the applications of UX design:

  • Website design
  • App design
  • Software design
  • Sitemap
  • Information architecture
  • Service Design

What does a UX process look like?

UX designers follow a clearly defined UX design workflow that helps them come up with a solution that solves specific needs of users and businesses. It’s not a linear process — designers ideate on it so long as they answer the needs well enough. The process looks like this.

  • Defines the business need and user problems that need solving
  • Researches the problem and learns about the end-user
  • Creates information architecture & user flows
  • Creates Low-fidelity prototypes
  • Creates High-fidelity prototypes
  • Tests Prototypes

The Principles of UX Design

As non-designers, it’s crucial that you know what constitutes good UX design. This will prevent you from committing design mistakes that can lead to revenue losses. The following are the principles of UX design that Peter Morville, a pioneer in the field of User Experience and Information Architecture, created. 

  • Useful- it must fulfill a purpose
  • Usable- must provide intuitiveness and efficiency
  • Findable- easily navigable
  • Credible- assures the audience that they will get their desired results
  • Desirable- an appealing brand identity and image
  • Accessible- the inclusion of people with poor vision, hearing, or motion impaired
  • Valuable- offers value to the customer

Penji’s UX Design

All the information mentioned above can be staggering for non-designers. This is the reason Penji can help you. Our team of professional designers includes the best UX designers. You can send as many UX design requests as you want, all for a flat monthly fee. 

Want to hire a UX/UI designer? Sign up today for any of Penji’s affordable plans to get started.

Final Thoughts

UX design is a complex concept that many non-designers shy away from. But surely, it’s not as complicated as you might think. All you need to do is understand it and leave it up to Penji to create amazing UX designs that are suitable for your business.